Well at least it wasn’t the San Francisco 49ers.
And at least it was with every pass rusher missing. Except Derick Hall, who did the job of a one-man wrecking crew. I mean, look at this beast. How strong do you have to be to do this?
But here’s the thing about one-man wrecking crews. They don’t — any controlled demolition experts in the house, feel free to back me up here — well they don’t accomplish a lot on their own. You need more than one bad dude with a hammer to take down the city’s second-tallest building.
And thus, the 42 points.
At least the officiating was consistent*
*consistent with another trip to Detroit for a nationally televised game some years ago
And at least the undermanned defense had the decency to keep most Detroit drives short, like this one:
Probably shouldn’t’ve made you watch that version, oops. Nobody needs to see the Lions again. Not until the NFCCG, that is. Tracker time.
Tracker 1
Tradition? Tradition(al stats)!
Actually all that looks good except for the red zone cratering, and the Seahawks had such an artificially good start against teams with few red zone weapons, that it was bound to go differently against Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs and whoever else is All-Pro-ing in that offense this season. Maybe next time, let’s not let the concrete-footed quarterback ride his goff cart unmolested into the end zone.
Tracker 2
By the nerds, for the nerds
Well this doesn’t look like last week, when the Seahawks were ranked first in the league in success rate, yards per play and total defensive EPA. And top 5 in literally everything else (not an exaggeration, they really were). However, falling out of the top was inevitable sooner or later, as inevitable as graduating from Nix-Brissett-Thompson to… people who can throw the ball past the line of scrimmage. So the collection of single digits is probably a little more representative.
Single digits is still really good for a team that spent last season ranked 24th and lower in every advanced category devised. Months ago, the Seahawks used to be below average everywhere. Now they’re only in the bottom half in YAC.
Fun fact: 70 percent of the yards allowed through the air by Seattle this year are after the catch. No other NFL team exceeds 69 percent. I’m not sure what this means yet, or if it’s anything more than noise, but put a bookmark it in for later.
Missed tackles peeked their ugly head above 10 percent again. The chief offenders here are Devon Witherspoon (19.2) and Tyrel Dodson (15.4), which is either worrisome or encouraging, depending on your faith in them to turn it around.
Tracker 3
Hell yes these are the fun stats
No picks or recovered fumbles since Week 1 strikes me as a statistical anomaly that will even out over time. If it doesn’t, playoffs are probably out of the picture. You kinda gotta take the ball away sometimes. As Detroit proved Monday night.
Next up are the New York Giants, who may or may not be without a concussed Malik Nabers, their only offensive weapon. Hey AT LEAST it’s still not the 49ers (don’t look ahead) or the Buffalo Bills (what did I just say).
